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“It’s called Talented Twelve, and it’s basically for the smart black kids at the school. My dad started it back when the school was mostly white.”
“Which school?”
“Oak Grove Elementary. Anyway, Nyleah was in it up until sophomore year.”
“Why did she quit?”
“She didn’t. She got kicked out because she didn’t keep her grades up. To be in the Twelve, we have to keep a 3.75 or higher.”
“That’s pretty strict.”
Bria looked at her father, who had a smile on his face. “That’s right,” he said. “Black excellence.”
Bria thought she saw a flicker of pride cross Detective Webb’s face. “Twice as good, right?” he said.
Marcus shook his head. “Nah, we off that. We’re not competing with white folks anymore. That’s played. We’re aiming higher.” Marcus glanced at Ackerman. “No offense.”
“None taken.”
Webb smiled. “When Nyleah was dismissed from the group, was she upset?”
Marcus spoke up before Bria could. “Her mother was. But she couldn’t do anything about it. She signed the covenant.”
“Covenant? You had them sign contracts?”
“Obviously not legally enforceable, but yeah, you had to agree to the terms.”
“Hmm. So no hard feelings between you and her?” he asked, turning his attention back toward Bria. But Marcus wasn’t done talking.
“We invited her back at the end of last year. Nicole—her mother—sent me a copy of her report card. She had brought her grades back up,” Marcus said.
Webb wrote something down. “So she was a member when she died?”
“No, we break in the summer. She would have been a member again this year if she…if this hadn’t happened.”
“I see.” Webb was silent for a moment, and then he seemed to remember where he’d left off. “So no hard feelings?” he asked Bria.
“No. Not because of that.”
Mr. Strozier cleared his throat. Webb shot him a glance before continuing. “So there were hard feelings at some point in your friendship?”
“I mean…okay, so we were both up for dance captain, and she won. That kind of messed up our friendship for a while.”
“Would it be accurate to say you were jealous?”
Jealous? No. Try betrayed, she thought. “Maybe a little bit. I don’t know. More like irritated. Basically what happened was she stole some of my eight counts—”
“Eight counts?”
“Dance moves. She used some of mine in her tryout, and that’s how she won.”
“Did that make you angry?”
Mr. Strozier shifted in his seat. He was starting to speak when Bria cut him off. “I wasn’t mad, I was hurt.”
Ackerman finally spoke from his corner of the office. “I’m confused…why would she ruin your friendship just to be captain of a high school dance troop?”
“Dance can lead to other opportunities." she explained. "Most high school girls who dance wanna eventually dance at an HBCU. It’s super competitive.”
